Allianz Football League Division 1 – Cork 2-14 Laois 0-10

Counihan cautious as Laois pay dearly for Cork’s travel

Laois 0-10 Cork 2-14

By Brendan O’Brien for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Cork may have been disappointed when stripped of home advantage for this tie but their trip to the midlands proved a perfect tonic for a side that shed points on its two previous away jaunts. Going by the form guide this might have been a tricky assignment: after all, Donegal had beaten Cork and Laois had bettered if not battered Donegal but the vagaries of league football are many and complex and such linear patterns rarely run true. “There is a big difference in a week,” said Cork manager Conor Counihan. “Things went for us this week. We would have been disappointed last week in Donegal while Laois played very well in stages against Dublin. It changes every week at this time of the year. Championship is the real test and I wouldn’t take too much from either team’s performance tonight.”

Counihan attempted to soften the blow for his opposite number when he spoke about Justin McNulty being “short a few” but the absent Pádraig Clancy and Brendan Quigley weren’t the deal breakers two days ago. Laois’ problems are more deeply-rooted. Justin McNulty is a year and a half into his tenure now and there is nothing to suggest that the 2003 Leinster champions are any better now than last summer when they suffered trimmings at the hands of Dublin and Kildare.

Add in the demolition job done on their U21s by Dublin earlier in the week – the final score was 2-21 to 0-4 – and the scale of the county’s slide from the days when they were contesting senior provincial finals and winning All-Ireland minors is clear. They deployed a sweeper here and were still overrun by a Cork side playing within itself and Longford will fancy their chances of an upset when they meet in Leinster later in the year. It is against that backdrop on which Cork’s evening must be dissected.

The ease with which Cork claimed the two points can be highlighted by the fact that it took 30 minutes for the visitors to earn their first free. They had 1-8 on the board by then and the result was already in their pocket. The visitors were a dozen points to the good at half-time with Colm O’Neill and Aidan Walsh central to most of their scores and both of the evening’s more interesting subplots centred on the pair who contributed 2-6 and much more. Walsh’s workload with various teams has been considerable of late and it seemed like a sensible option to play him at full-forward until Pearse O’Neill picked up a second yellow card after the interval and the man from Kanturk was pulled back to fill the void around the centre.

“He did (well),” said Counihan with a chuckle. “It’s just as well he missed the first two (goal chances) or we would have never heard the end of it. He is a very versatile guy and he gives a lot to the team. He likes the wide open space but he is a good option up there.” Walsh had a hand in the Cork goals, both of them scored by Colm O’Neill who tacked on a trio of points in a performance that came just over a year after a season-ending cruciate knee injury against Galway in Salthill. His second. “Yeah, the operation was April 1st,” said the man from Ballyclough. “It is a long road and there is no easy way of doing it. It is a lonely road and it is nice to get a few games under your belt. Hopefully I can stay injury free now.”

Both Walsh and O’Neill were chief instigators in, and recipients of, attacking play which allied the team’s renowned running abilities with a heavy sprinkling of longer and faster ball into a three-man full-forward line that also boasted Donncha O’Connor. That energy and focus slackened after the break, an inevitability with the game won so early and O’Neill sent to the line, but 35 minutes was all it took to reaffirm the impression of a side with a frightening arsenal at its disposal. If there was a criticism it was in the fact that it took 59 minutes for the likes of Barry O’Driscoll and Sean Kiely to be plugged into proceedings but that amounts to a small quibble on a night when any lingering fear of relegation was put to bed. “That’s what it is about, trying to get the two points on the board and make yourself safe,” said Counihan. “We did that. We probably had a good first-half and a poor enough second-half but, look, job done and it was a good improvement from last week.”

Scorers for Laois: MJ Tierney (0-4, 3 frees); R Munnelly (0-2); J O’Loughlin (0-2); P Cahillane (0-1) C Begley (0-1).

Scorers for Cork: C O’Neill (2-3); A Walsh (0-3); F Goold (0-3); D O’Connor (0-2, 1 free); E Cotter (0-1); P Kissane (0-1); P Kerrigan (0-1).

LAOIS: E Culleton; P O’Leary, K Lillis, C Healy; C Boyle, C Begley, D Strong; K Meaney, J O’Loughlin; P Cahillane, D O’Connor, B Sheehan; R Munnelly, A Kelly, MJ Tierney.

Subs: M Timmons for O’Connor (35); S Conroy for Sheehan (35); S Ramsbottom for Kelly (46); L Kealy for Strong (67); G Walsh for O’Loughlin (67).

CORK: A Quirke; R Carey, E O’Mahony, E Cotter; P Kissane, N O’Leary, G Canty; A O’Connor, P O’Neill; F Goold, P Kerrigan, P Kelly; D O’Connor, A Walsh, C O’Neill.

Subs: B O’Driscoll for Kerrigan (59); S Kiely for Canty (59); D O’Sullivan for Kissane (67); L Shorten for D O’Connor (67); J Fitzpatrick for A O’Connor (67).

Referee: C Reilly (Meath)

O’Neill shines in Rebels win

Report from the GAA.ie web site

Allianz Football League Division I: Laois 0-10 Cork 2-14

Cork moved to the top of Division I of the Allianz Football League – for the time being at least – with a 10-point defeat of Laois at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on Saturday night. Although the reigning champions’ closest rivals in the top tier of the Allianz League, Kerry and Mayo, are both in action tomorrow, the Rebels sit on top of the table on five points overnight after bouncing back from last week’s defeat to Donegal thanks to two spectacular Colm O’Neill goals. Ballyclough clubman O’Neill, who hit 2-3 in total, finished emphatically in the seventh minute and then in first half added time to steer Cork to a 2-11 to 0-5 lead at the break, before Pearse O’Neill’s dismissal on the resumption of play led to a more competitive second half.

“When you have a big advantage like that you can get a bit complacent,” said man-of-the-match O’Neill. “We were a bit disappointed that they got the first two or three scores of the second half, but that’s something we can work on. We are delighted with the win.” Just like they did last week against Dublin, Laois made the early running and points from John O’Loughlin, Ross Munnelly and MJ Tierney had the home side 0-3 to 0-1 ahead after just six minutes.

Justin McNulty’s side started without two of their key players, though, as the in-form Padraic Clancy and Brendan Quigley failed to make the starting team, losses a team struggling for their Division I life could hardly afford. In an effort to stop the Rebels’ lethal attack, Billy Sheehan was deployed as a sweeper, but the Laois goal was breached as early as the seventh minute, when Fintan Goold fielded spectacularly and set wing-back Noel O’Leary off on a bullocking run up the field. O’Leary laid the ball off for O’Neill, who drove a brilliant shot past Laois goalkeeper Eoin Culliton for the first of two trademark goals.

The goal summed up Cork’s dominance: they controlled the ball in midfield and supplied lots of good, early ball to a forward line that contained Aidan Walsh in the unfamiliar full-forward role. O’Neill’s goal sparked a period of complete Cork control, with the Rebels hitting 1-4 without reply to lead by 1-5 to 0-3 after 13 minutes. Goold, in particular, was having a field day in midfield for Cork, hitting three points from play in the first half. Conor Counihan’s side might have had another couple of goals, but Culliton saved well from Donncha O’Connor and Walsh wasted a great chance just before the break, his shot grazing the bar before going over for his second point of the game.

The Allianz League champions did get their second goal before the half-time whistle. Again, it was O’Neill who hit the back of the net, and again it was a spectacular finish, the 23-year-old unleashing a rocket of a shot for another brilliant goal to give his side a 2-11 to 0-5 lead at the break. Laois manager McNulty abandoned the sweeper experiment at half-time and was handed an unexpected boost just three minutes after the restart when Pearse O’Neill was a second yellow card for a foul on Mark Timmons.

Cork were forced to bring the 2010 Young Footballer of the Year, Walsh, back into midfield and were a man short in attack. The net result was that the procession towards the Laois goal was halted and the O’Moore men gradually came back into the game, with Tierney (0-2f), Colm Begley and O’Loughlin all scoring points to take the lop-sided look off the scoreline. However, Cork were never in any real danger of allowing their opponents back into the game, as Colm O’Neill and Walsh clipped over points to leave Cork leading by 2-14 to 0-9 going into the final quarter.

In truth, it was Cork who played like they had the extra man in the closing stages, as Laois felt keenly the absence of experienced pair Quigley and Clancy. Laois are now firmly stuck in a relegation battle, with just two points from four games, while Cork’s credentials will undergo a thorough examination as they face Kerry and Mayo in their next two games.

Cork: A Quirke; R Carey, E O’Mahony, E Cotter (0-1); N O’Leary, G Canty, P Kissane (0-1); A O’Connor, F Goold (0-3); P Kerrigan (0-1), P O’Neill, P Kelly; C O’Neill (2-3, 0-1 ‘45), A Walsh (0-3), D O’Connor (0-2, 0-1f).

Laois: E Culliton; P O’Leary, K Lillis, C Healy; D Strong, K Meaney, C Boyle; A Kelly, J O’Loughlin (0-2); R Munnelly (0-2), C Begley (0-1), D O’Connor; P Cahillane (0-1), MJ Tierney (0-4f), B Sheehan.

Referee: Cormac Reilly (Meath)